Student deer hunters have limited options for storing weapons

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One crucial problem is faced by college-aged hunters — where should they store their rifles and bows?

The only place Central Michigan University students with rifles or any other type of weapons are allowed to keep these possessions is at the CMU Police Department.

Shaun Holtgreive, associate director of Residence Life, said all guns are to be checked into CMU Police.

“Students are not allowed to store any kind of guns in a residence hall room,” Holtgreive said. “The process is that students who want to be able to hunt will check their gun in and out of their storage facility.”

Holtgreive said students are also not allowed to store their dead deer anywhere on campus waiting to be processed.

“Obviously, we wouldn’t allow it because you need the space to have someone do that,” Holtgreive said. “We’ve had issues where folks didn’t store their guns. It happens every now and then.”

CMU Police Chief Bill Yeagley said there is a sign-in procedure for students to store their weapons free of charge.

“We have an armory where we store our weapons,” Yeagley said. “We have a variety of weapons for our police department, and there’s a section of that armory that’s put aside for the weapons of anyone from the campus that wants to store them.”

CMU Police Captain Fred Harris said students have to fill out a one-page document, a weapons storage forum, as part of checking in their weapon.

“We give them a receipt, and they can come back and check it in and out when they take off to go hunting,” Harris said. “They can come back anytime they’d like to and check them out.”

Yeagley said the number of weapons stored each year on campus varies.

“It does increase during the hunting season,” he said. “We get about 15 or less a year.”

Arboretum Apartment Homes, 1825 Liberty Dr., states in its lease that there are no weapons allowed, said Manager Michael Henkel.

“You can’t register them (here),” Henkel said. “If anybody has them, we don’t know about it.”

Mount Pleasant Police Public Information Officer Jeff Browne said the Mount Pleasant Police haven’t had any issues with weapons during hunting season.

“Obviously, we’ve asked people to follow good safety procedures,” Browne said. “Treat every gun as if it’s loaded, and never point it at anything you’re not willing to destroy.”